Many researchers have reported that life stress exerts only a modest direct effect on health, indicating that not all persons who experience stress become ill. These findings have motivated researchers to investigate the ways in which social and psychological resources buffer the impact of stress on health. Many of these studies, however, have been hampered by a number of conceptual and methodological problems. In addition, relatively little attention has been given to how these factors affect the health of elderly people. The purpose of this study is to examine how social resources (social support) and psychological resources (locus of control beliefs) help elderly people cope with the effects of stress. Although the psychological and physical health of our subjects will be used as outcome measures in this study, the relationship between social and psychological resources will also be explored.